Time for a Reading Adventure

Friday, October 5, 2007

Page 15

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

Time for a Reading Adventure

By J’AMY PACHECO

What are you reading?

Hopefully something longer than this column, because October is National Book Month. This is the month when the National Book Foundation encourages all of us to “embark on the journey of a lifetime, travel to exotic places, mythical lands and experience adventure beyond imagination.”

“All without luggage, tickets, a passport or leaving home,” the Foundation adds. “All you need is an open mind. And an open book.”

Having just returned from a 10-day adventure that involved three generations of females visiting two states, four theme parks, three airports, two hotels, one shopping mall and a whole bunch of gift shops, I think the idea of finding adventure at home sounds great. Adventure beyond that I know I’ll experience when I finally get around to doing our vacation laundry, I mean.

I love to read. As a child, I read everything. Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” series were among my favorites. I remember once finding a small green book of Tolstoy stories laying around, and reading that. I was probably 10, and I still have the book.

I’ve also kept, and occasionally re-read, “Gone With the Wind,” “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” “The Witch of Blackbird Pond,” and “Christy.” These books never fail to rekindle the emotion I felt when I first read them, decades ago.

Less well-known books have remained with me as well. For a time, my mother was a single parent and money for books was scarce. I still remember my delight at being able to scrape up the change that was needed to buy a paperback book called “Goodbye, Gray Lady” through a school book club.

I recall it being about a house haunted by a ghost that only appeared when the house was in danger, and that it had a happy ending. The rest is lost to me, because I’ve never been able to locate another copy of the book.

When we couldn’t buy books, the library saved me. I was always amazed that the librarian would let me check out as many books as I thought I could read in two weeks, and would regularly cart home piles of a dozen or more hardbacks.

Since I became a mother, my reading list has changed dramatically. When my daughter was in kindergarten, we got hooked on a young reader series about an extraordinarily funny character named Junie B. Jones. Although Junie’s books are way below my daughter’s reading level, we still buy each new installment in the series just for the laughs.

When she was in third grade, we both read the entire “Series of Unfortunate Events.” By fourth grade, we both had become fans of Cornelia Funke’s fantasy books – and both of us wait breathlessly for the third installment in her “Inkheart” series.

I’m currently reading a book that is more age-appropriate for me. I picked it up in an airport because it was written by the author of one of the saddest, sweetest books I’ve read.

Unfortunately, this one is scary enough to make me want to use my nightlight. But I’m about halfway through it, and can’t bear to put it down without finding out how it ends.

I did put a book down once. It was called “Ghost Story,” and I read it while living in a hotel during an out-of-state assignment for work. That book was so scary that midway, I stopped and threw it away. The next day, I discovered – to my horror – that the maid (at least, I think it was the maid) had retrieved the book from the trash and set it on my nightstand.

I tossed it again, and covered it with crumpled Kleenex to make sure it was clear I wanted it gone. Phew.

“The Amityville Horror” scared the heck out of me as a teenager. I read the first half, then stopped because I was so scared. But weeks later, temptation got the best of me, and I finished it. I still wish I hadn’t.

When I finish my current scary book, I’m going to start on “Wicked.” It’s the novel that gives the Wicked Witch of the West the opportunity to tell her side of the story. Since I likely won’t get around to seeing the play in the near future, I can’t wait to read the book.

Besides, there’s no substitute for reading a book. Someone once gave me a mug that reads, “You Can’t Judge a Book by its Movie.” That’s true – I can’t think of too many things better than a good book.

So, pick up a book today and start reading. You never know where it might take you!